Lawn Mower Maintenance

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Summary: Make sure your gas-powered lawn mower[2] is in shape to make it through the rest of the mowing season. Find out the most common cause of fuel problems and learn how to address it in this video.

TOM: Your lawn mower[3] may have served you well all spring and all summer long but now it’s the fall, it’s time to put it away so we can be absolutely sure it’s going to work right next time.

Couple of things to remember. First of all, gasoline. Guess what? It only lasts 30 days, it will go bad and it will seize up your mower if you leave it inside, so the smart move is to actually drain all the gas out of here, or run it out until it’s dry, or add fuel stabilizer to the gas tank or the gas can, that will keep it fresh throughout the winter.

The next thing to do is to think about sharpening the blades. This is the perfect time to do it. If you swing your lawn mower upside down, you see that the blade comes off just with one bolt and a ratchet.

Now, it’s probably a smart move to also have this done by a pro if you’re not familiar with it because sharpening the blade can be a little bit tricky. It’s done on a grinding wheel and it makes sure that your blade will cut perfectly the next time.

Now, other things to remember, your spark plugs, if you’ve used it one season, take it out and replace it. It’s a very small investment and it will make sure it fires up reliably next time.

Lastly, change the oil. If it's been working well all spring and summer, no need to leave it in all winter long. Change it with fresh oil, and this way, when you fire that up in the spring, it’ll start every single time.